Thousands of young North American Jews visit Israel every year on organized, educational, heritage tours. Israel Experience Programs present religion, homeland, and nation to participants in compelling and sometimes unsettling ways. Supported by Jewish communal institutions, these programs are encouraged for their presumed value in combating assimilation and a loss of Jewish culture. Faydra Shapiro suggests that their real success may lie elsewhere.

Building Jewish Roots offers an exploration of how participants build rich and varied Jewish identities through their experiences in Israel at the long-established Livnot U'Lehibanot program. Shapiro argues that Israel Experience Programs offer something vital to participants - the power to shape and choose their own Jewish identities.

Vividly written, Building Jewish Roots is a critical resource for those interested in contemporary Jewry, religion in the modern world, ethnic studies, and ethnography.